Now Commenting On:

Young heads to DL, A's recall Taylor

2013 MLB.com Top Prospects: Michael Taylor played in 17 games in Oakland between 2011 and 2012 and profiles as a right fielder

By Jane Lee
/
MLB.com |

NEW YORK -- Five days after securing a 19-inning victory over the Angels, the A's placed their third player on the disabled list who sustained injuries from that very game.

With Brett Anderson and Coco Crisp already on the 15-day DL, outfielder Chris Young joined them by way of a left quad strain, leading to the callup of the team's No. 12 prospect, Michael Taylor, from Triple-A Sacramento on Saturday.

Young tested the quad in New York on Friday afternoon, with hopes of potentially being available later off the bench, but "it was still sore," he said Saturday morning.

"Jogging is fine, but trying to turn it up, like you'd have to do on a baseball field, it wasn't ready yet," Young said. "If I can't go out there and steal bases and play the outfield and move around, then my value isn't as high. I think me being healthy is best, for sure.

"It's going to take a little longer than planned, so they decided to make the move, where when I do come back it's hopefully at 100 percent. It's probably the better thing to do than play through it and maybe make it worse."

Young planned to do more running on Saturday and will continue to take batting practice with the team, carrying on work with a swing that, to this point, has produced a .172 average.

The A's do have the outfield depth to offset these injuries, but it's running thin with both Crisp and Young out of the mix. Moreover, two other outfielders are significantly struggling, with Josh Reddick entering Saturday batting .143 and Seth Smith coming in with a 9-for-53 slump over his last 13 games, including back-to-back four-strikeout nights in his most recent two games.

With that in mind, manager Bob Melvin will likely be less inclined to continue starting the left-handed Smith vs. southpaws, as he had been doing, and instead give Taylor the majority of at-bats against them.

"I would think so," Melvin said. "Seth is a guy that I've been reluctant to take out against lefties, but he's struggling a little bit here as of late, so there's an excellent chance Taylor will be in there tomorrow [against Andy Pettitte]."

This is Taylor's second stint with the A's this season, his last one spanning just three days before the A's brought in Casper Wells. He was batting .329 with five home runs and 16 RBIs in 18 games with the River Cats.

Taylor was pulled from Sacramento's game in the second inning Friday in order to catch a red-eye flight to New York. He said he couldn't sleep on the plane, "so it's going to be a Red Bull kind of day."

The 27-year-old may now finally get the extended look in Oakland he's been waiting for, while the team treks on without one-third of its payroll.

Said Melvin: "I can't remember ever losing three guys in a game, let alone three guys like that."

Jane Lee is a reporter for MLB.com. Read her blog, Major Lee-ague, and follow her on Twitter @JaneMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.